Be the Difference—the Library Hosts Martin Luther King Community Events

The theme of this year’s Martin Luther King celebration (Be the Difference) has special significance for UVA and Charlottesville—the targets last summer of racist violence that showed the nation how far it has yet to travel in search of King’s dream of racial harmony and social justice. In keeping with the theme, the Library will host three events featuring people who are striving to make a difference.

Thursday, January 18, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library, Loretta Ross, author and expert on human rights and women’s issues—a victim herself of rape and incest, and a campaigner for the reproductive rights of all women—will present her talk “CALLING IN the CALLING OUT Culture—Accountability Through Love.” A reception will follow from 5:30–6:00 p.m.

Monday, January 22, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Harrison Institute and Small Special Collections Library, lecturer, Holocaust survivor, and former refugee Marion Blumenthal Lazan will talk about her family’s experiences in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Holland, and about her resettlement in the United States following WWII. She is among the last of a generation that can speak first-hand about the horrors of Nazi extermination camps. Her talk, “Four Perfect Pebbles: A Message of Perseverance, Determination, Faith, and Hope,” is being cosponsored by the Albert and Shirley Small Library as “An MLK, Jr. Call for Peace: Marion Lazan.” There will be a reception immediately following in the Multicultural Student Services Center on the basement level of Newcomb Hall near the Theater.

Friday, January 26, from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the University of Virginia Music Library (Old Cabell Hall), the Music Library’s Making Noise series will present “Josh St. Hill: A Live Performance and Conversation with A.D. Carson.” St. Hill is a Monticello High School student who wrote A King’s Story—a play with the awful ring of truth, about a black teenager killed by a white police officer, told in part through narrative rap. Set against the violence of August 12, St. Hill’s play has won praise for his writing and performance, and will be moderated by UVA Assistant Professor of Hip-Hop, A.D. Carson. There will be a reception following the performance.

The key-note for this year’s celebration—We Are the Change We Seek—is from a campaign speech by former president Barack Obama in which he said: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” The key-note event is sold out, but please attend one or more of the other events.

View the complete calendar of events and be part of the change.

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